


Let me see through your eyes

by Wildsouthwest



Category: Super Sentai Series, 手裏剣戦隊ニンニンジャー | Shuriken Sentai Ninninger
Genre: M/M, guess who saw a prompt and got hit by a brainstorm, it's meeeeeeeeeee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 22:09:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18061088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildsouthwest/pseuds/Wildsouthwest
Summary: Soulmate AU where it's the one where when you dream you’re seeing whatever your soulmate is currently experiencing.





	Let me see through your eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [indiscriminate_indecision](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indiscriminate_indecision/gifts).



> For my wife, because when you find a good goddamn OTP you make whatever excuses you can to keep it.

When Yakumo was four years old, he had a nightmare.

He still remembers it now; still feels his heart race when a wolf's howl catches his attention unexpectedly. Still pauses when a canine rushes at the audience from behind a television screen, still chooses a different seat if something with claws gets near him. Still insists to his cousins that he's _not_ scared, that wasn't even his memory, he just watched it.

But he still remembers it.

_It's hot, and dry, and he's only a child but he can still feel the panic in the air, as everyone around him hurries, rushing with children in their arms and animals by their sides and hastily gathered belongings on their backs. No-one's **running** but everyone's sure in a rush to get away from town for a bit._

_He's not, though. **He**_ \- and Yakumo knows that much, that his soulmate is, at least, another man, and he doesn't know how much he should protest that - _is being piggybacked along by his older brother, in the middle of a small country town - barely more than one street, lined with about a half dozen buildings on each side. He's young but he knows how this town works; everyone lives on their farms out further into the countryside, with their fields of animals and corn_ \- that's something Yakumo works out later. The boy is barely older than him. - _and wheat and whatever else people grew in this area. It's different to his home-town; he's only here because his dad and brother finally, **finally** took him camping, and now it's being ruined by a Youkai trying to attack everyone._

_He's not worried, though. His dad and brother are the **best** Youkai Hunters in America. They'll kill it for sure._

_So he's a bit confused, when, after the town clears up a bit more, his dad opens up an empty crate nearby, and his brother carefully drops him into it. He turns, curious, confused, looking up at them. His brother is old, and his dad even older_ \- Yakumo's fairly certain, later, that the brother is just barely an adult - _and his dad holds the lid, ready to close it again. "Kinji. Stay here and hide," his dad says; his voice is soft, but firm, and there's a sad look in his eyes._

_One that's missing in his brother's; he looks like he could fight the world and win, and plans on it. "Your dad and brother will take care of you."_

_"But--" He goes to rise, lift himself out of the crate, and his brother's hand is on his tiny shoulder, pushing him back down. "We'll protect you, Kinji," he says, with such conviction that he can't help but nod in agreement, and stays where he is, crouching slightly so the lid of the crate doesn't hit him on the head as their dad lowers it again._

_He stays where he is. He **does**. _

_But when he hears them fighting, tooth and nail against something big and angry, he has to at least **look**._

_And when he does, it's to see his family being struck down without mercy by something big and brown, almost black, with silver claws dripping with blood, that turns to the sky and **howls** with a savagery so primal that his heart freezes._

And then Yakumo woke up.

He didn't sleep again for almost a week, and demanded it be in the same room as his mummy until the nightmares subsided.

~

When Kinji was a child, he'd have the same dreams pretty much every single night.

He still remembers them now; realised that if he followed the motions that his soul-mate and his cousins made - and it _was_ a he, Kinji learned early on, and reconciled with the fact in private - when they were training, almost every time Kinji fell to sleep, he realised he could learn the skills they were using. Not as _well_ , by any means, but when he got them actually _right_ for the first time and made a small puff of wind that kicked the dust and a ceramic plate off a high shell, he was _thrilled._

(And also in trouble, for the plate. He practised outside after that.)

But the dreams changed, after his soulmate (Yakumo, _Cloud_ , he'd looked the names up and it turned his mother was a _very_ famous fashion designer) moved to England. The dreams were less frequent, too, with how awkward the time zones were to sleep through - Yakumo was usually just waking up when Kinji went to bed - but he still got a few dreams in, and discovered that Yakumo was a boarding student now. At some big magic school; but that was less interesting than the other training that he'd been doing with his cousins, all that _ninja_ training.

But Yakumo was a furious reader, and excellent student, and while Kinji certainly learned a lot about magical theory in that twelve years, he found that _that_ wasn't something he was able to mimic as easily, and he lost interest in the dreams for a while, instead dedicating himself to his waking world. Learning to cook, to clean, to keep a house, continuing the limited ninja training he knew and the Youkai hunting he was learning by himself, with his family unable to teach him, to travel and live off the land where he could, and to trade his services for a bit of cash where he couldn't.

(With, of course, the occasional foray into his soulmate's mother's fashion lines. It was expensive, but worth it.)

~

When Yakumo was seventeen, he didn't expect to see his grandfather in his dreams.

It was really disconcerting, actually.

He knew his grandfather called himself the Last Ninja, and even if he didn't fully _believe_ all of the ridiculous "achievements" he had apparently accomplished, he knew that ninjitsu ran in their blood.

He just didn't know the old man was still _alive_.

So to not only realise _that_ , but to see him actually _using_ his Hurricane Jutsu to demolish a Youkai (and most of the field it was fleeing through), and then bringing a horrifically huge bolt of Lightning Jutsu down from the sky - that had been completely _clear_ only moments before - to finish it off completely, he can't help but feel a bit of respect for the old man.

...or maybe that's just his soulmate's _blatant_ hero worship leaking through the bond. He knows Kinji's been trying, with varying success to steal the Igasaki techniques for years now, goddamn _Kinji_ (how he had _gotten hold_ of a copy of his grandfather's autobiography, Yakumo will never know). But Kinji's rushing towards Yakumo's grandfather now, throwing himself at the old man's feet and literally _begging_ for him to be taken on as an apprentice.

He doesn't expect his grandfather to step closer - and neither is Kinji expecting for the old man to grab him by the chin and lift his head up, firm but not particularly gentle, and stares deep into his eyes for a moment.

Stares into _Yakumo's_ eyes, he's _so sure_ , that the sudden shock of realisation from it is enough to jolt him awake again. He doesn't know what happens after that, but he can only assume that the idiot got a good talking to from his grandfather. He knows the old man was esoteric to the point of frustration, from his mother's occasional offhanded comments; he can only imagine what he’s like _now_.

…

...actually, he’d rather not. He’s just going to keep that memory to himself, and continue on with his magic study. He doesn’t need more distractions.

~

When Kinji was twenty, he was on his knees in front of the Last Ninja, being very intently stared at, and finding it hard to protest when _it was the actual Last Ninja, in the flesh, cut him into grits and feed him to the pigs he can't **believe it--**_

Master Igasaki releases Kinji’s face, and Kinji can only stare in shock; his face tingles slightly from the contact, but maybe that’s just leftover static from that lightning jutsu.

“You can’t be a student of mine,” the old man says, his English flawless and faintly Italian-tinted. “Not with no Nintality. Go back to your family. Give up this dream.”

“No!” Kinji throws himself into a bow again, so hard that his hat gets thrown to the ground as well. “I don’t got no family to go back to, sir, with all respect.” The old man seems to pause, but he charges on anyway. “An’ I done been learnin’ the Igasaki style from y’all and yer grandson, I just know I could be an amazin’ student if y’all give me half a chance!”

Igasaki stares, for so long that Kinij feels like the hairs on the back of his neck are sizzling under his glare. Until finally, the old man sighs.

“You can be my student-” Kinji jerks his head up so fast that something cracks, but Igasaki’s already holding a hand out to stop him. “-if you can defeat me in combat. That is the only way I will accept you as a student of mine. Is that understood?”

“Y--” Kinji’s back on his feet faster than a blink, and Igasaki almost seems surprised at that speed, but again Kinji doesn’t care. “Yessir!”

The Last Ninja almost grimaces - almost, but his face stays neutral instead, and without another word he claps both hands together and disappears in a puff of smoke.

Kinji nods to himself. Alright then. There was his goal. Defeat the Last Ninja, become his student, take the End Shuriken and fix everything. He could do that.

~

When Yakumo was nineteen-and-a-half, an arrow broke the window of his student dorm and embedded itself in the stone wall above his bed. Wrapped around it was a letter, with a wax Igasaki seal stamped down to hold it shut.

Damn it.

~

When Kinji was twenty-one-and-three-quarters, he bought a ticket to fly one-way to Japan. He’d already paid to have Rodeomaru and the Bison Buggy shipped back over; all he had to do now was get on the plane.

Yee _ _haw_._


End file.
